The present invention relates to an electron beam apparatus and a method for production of its specimen chamber.
A specimen chamber of an electron beam apparatus such as an electron microscope is required to have strength since heavy components such as an electron gun and a lens barrel are mounted on its upper part, and it is necessary to use a shield material for shielding against an environmental magnetic field in order to prevent a magnetic field external to the specimen chamber from influencing the track of the electron beam; therefore, a strong magnetic material such as iron is used for the specimen chamber. As used herein, the environmental magnetic field means an AC magnetic field generated from an AC appliance around the electron beam apparatus and a DC magnetic field such as the earth magnetism.
The magnetic material is used for the specimen chamber because the magnetic material having small magnetic resistance absorbs the environmental magnetic field applied externally to the specimen chamber thereby to prevent the environmental magnetic field from hindering the electron beam irradiated on the center of the specimen chamber. A method of shielding the overall mirror barrel using a high magnetic permeability material such as Permalloy and a method of shielding a periphery of an object glass are also known in the art (see Japanese Patent No. 2667714, page 2 and FIGS. 1 and 2, for example).
Production steps such as a heat treatment for annealing the material and welding junction of plate materials are required for producing the specimen chamber made from iron or permalloy thereby to increase the production cost. When the high magnetic permeability material such as pure iron or Permalloy is selected among magnetic materials for the purpose of improving the shielding properties against the environmental magnetic field, the material cost is increased. Further, since the specimen chamber made from pure iron or Permalloy is a heavy component, working efficiency in machining and handling the specimen chamber is lowered, and it is dangerous to handle such heavy component.
Also, since the electron beam transmits through the mirror barrel and the specimen chamber of the electron beam apparatus to reach their insides, it is necessary to stably maintain a vacuum state. However, when iron is used for the mirror barrel or the specimen chamber, a vacuum leakage from the welding junction of the plate materials may undesirably occur.